Food for a Community

A message from the author, Helen Stephenson:

One of the best things about travelling is trying different food. But the experience of sharing the meal with other people is just as interesting as the food itself. I’ve been very lucky to have shared some fantastic home-made food with friends and acquaintances in a number of countries. One of my best memories is of family beach picnics on 1st January, somewhere near to the equator – a memorable start to each new-year.

Milpa Alta is a region of twelve villages and towns to the south of Mexico City. In Milpa Alta, traditions are still very important and one of the most famous traditional events is a community meal. It takes place every Christmas and is called La Rejunta. More than a meal, it’s a feast. People make and consume about sixty thousand tamales and fifteen thousand litres of hot chocolate. Tamales are made from corn. They are typical of the region: the name Milpa Alta means ‘High cornfield’. The feast is offered to the people who go on the long walk to El Señor de Chalma about 80 kilometres away. It’s an important event on the religious calendar for local people and as many as 20,000 people take part.

The planning and organisation of La Rejunta takes the whole year. Every year, different people are given the job of majordomo, which means they’re responsible for organising the meal. There’s a waiting list to do this and, the next available year is 2046. This year’s majordomos are Virginia Meza Torres and her husband Fermín Lara Jiménez, who put their names on the list 14 years ago.

One year before the meal, men go to the forest and collect wood that they store near the home of the majordomo. It has to be dry when it’s used to make the cooking fires. Local farmers grow most of the corn, meat and vegetables that they will need as ingredients. In the week before the feast, hundreds of volunteers arrive to help with the preparation and the cooking. Instant or ready-made foods are not allowed. Amazingly, everyone seems to know what they have to do. On the day of the feast, the majordomos and others have stayed up all night cooking. Fermin is in charge of the numbers – making sure there are enough tamales for everyone.

For the people of Milpa Alta, eating together is one of their most important traditions. One woman, Josefina García Jiménez, explains that sitting together at the table is like a glue that keeps people together. ‘It feels like I am passing down a tradition, and when they are adults, they will remember what I have done. Here we have time to cook, time to think about the ingredients, time to show our kids through cooking that we love them.’ The time that everybody stays at the table after the meal is just as important as the food. They talk, tell stories and laugh together. At Christmas, La Rejunta is a giant version of a family meal.